I’m clueless, though, why that happens, it doesn’t happen with other drafts and there’s nothing I can do to fix it! I just copied and pasted your post in to a new one, it was the only way I could make it appear! You have magical powers, Mister. Thanks again, they’re fantastic toons.

Saw JackieG’s comment on the Early Bird thread (and embarrassingly posted a comment there a few minutes ago, just before this thread appeared) about the 1994 consent decree against the LAPD in the wake of the Rodney King verdict.

The consent decree was in effect for almost 20 years, was lifted only last year, and things have improved only slightly since then. We can’t wait until 2033 for things to simmer down in #Ferguson.

Seems like there are hundreds of police from various jurisdictions in #Ferguson. IMO, someone needs to position them along the business route there, protecting the stores (in their regular uniforms, not SWAT) and allow citizens to march in the street, stand on the sidewalks or parking lots, etc. The siege mentality must stop.

Seeing those tanks and armor trundling down major thoroughfares makes no sense. It looks like a scene from Prague 1968, but with more killing machines and armor.

If Missouri had a competent governor he would get the police off the major thoroughfares, position them to protect businesses and property and ignore any people who aren’t engaged in criminal activity.

Good morning folks. Do you think the K brothers and some others are sending people to Ferguson. I read somewhere that White folks are there throwing missiles. Now, maybe I am mistaken but this is a possibility. They will do anything to undermine this Presidency; do anything to make the President look bad. Maybe I am wrong but I have never heard or seen White folks coming out in great numbers like that. Also maybe some of the agitators that flew in from California and New York were paid to cause mayhem.

Miss pat, the president actually alluded to that in his statement when he said some of the agitators may not be from Ferguson. That tells me that the DOJ is very much aware of those stirring up trouble.

Thanks for saying that. I hope they will investigate that and bring it out in the open. BTW I think they are messing with CNN feed. I tried to go in on my tablet to read the headlines and couldn’t. I try to scan the headlines just to see what lies they are telling.

Don’t give up TOD.
We may not be able to change anyone else’s mind but we can change who is in office.
The answer is Voter Registration.
The enemy—-apart from racism and class warfare————– is Cynicism.
The savior is Hope.

So now WordP is indicating the same post as the previous post? In addition to not naming the upcoming post? Do they have someone at WordP who is paid to sit and fiddle at what doesn’t need fixing, like the cops making money doing a full shift of radar trapping?

This is what gets me. To say PBO is the most polarizing President is to lay the blame for the polarization at his feet. The same thing was said about Clinton, except now the polarization is worse. In both cases, the polarization was, in actuality, the fault of the GOP which drove narratives about both presidents that were totally false and which the media was complicit in.

In both cases, the presidents worked very hard to work with the other side, sometimes to a fault.

And of course, in the present case, there is another factor in play which has made it worse.

Are we more polarized now than before? Yes, of course we are. Is PBO President? Yes, of course he is. However, to say that the second is the cause of the first is a common logical mistake and is totally wrong. And not only is it wrong, it tends to actually serve to increase the polarization and, by refusing to look at the real causes of the polarization, does nothing to lessen it.

It would be more correct to say the “This Republican party is a more polarizing political party than most.”
At least in that case, you would have actual evidence of specific actions, etc to back up your case.

Simply put, the country was already polarized. It just took the audacity of an AA man to aspire to the highest office, and win twice, to shine the light on the truth. PBO did absolutely NOTHING to cause his haters to dislike him.

Pew has produced a good chart today, seen below, of U.S. Department of Education projections showing that the nation’s public schools this fall will for the first time be majority-minority: The demographic shift in public schools since just the late ’90s has been remarkable, driven both by the decline of white enrollment and population growth among U.S.-born Hispanic and Asian children (this is not, Pew points out, a demographic story primarily about immigration). According to Pew’s analysis of Census data, the number of U.S.-born Hispanic children aged 5 to 17 in the U.S. nearly doubled between 1997 and 2013.

White children, by comparison, make up nearly three-quarters of private school enrollment today. It’s important to note, though, that the increasing diversity of public school enrollment in America won’t necessarily mean that public school classrooms will soon be more diverse. We have to look at demographics through geography — and education policy through housing patterns — as Pew demographer Conrad Hackett points out with this interesting suggestion:

How’s that possible? If minorities are largely concentrated in nearly all-minority schools as a result of housing segregation, the number of majority-white schools could still outnumber them (imagine what would happen, for instance, if we had 55 minority children and 45 whites ones in a district with five schools, and two of those five schools were 100 percent minority)….continued

Taking Mother LL to the doctor today for her heart stress test. Also going to try and stay offline today; a relaxing vacation this has not been. But with an American city under siege, don’t know if I’ll be able to. Stay frost, see you all later.

Actually, tear gas cannister being shot. Here’s a thought. If the police actually just vacated the streets, ignored the protestors, stayed around businesses only, just what do you think would happen? My guess? Very little.

Of the 78 arrested—those booked into the St. Louis Co. jail anyway, all but 18 were from Mo. I suspect those from outside the state are the anarchy types, taking advantage of the troubled community to sow discord and chaos.

it is hard to process sometimes the belief that a mixed race, poor kid from a broken family, abandoned by his dad literally, “abandoned” by his mom figuratively (ask some children who have been given to grandparents to raise, even if it is the best choice for them), who was one of few African-Americans at virtually all levels of education, with an international-but-not-European-name, who attended two Ivy Leagues, including graduating from Harvard Law – as the first Black president (corrected from “editor” – thanks, Jose!) of the Law Review, who became a State Senator, a U.S. Senator and then President of the United States before turning 50…

It is hard to process the condescension towards him, the portrayal of him as naive and, indeed, stupid, the entitlement that insists that despite their considerably lesser education and accomplishments (as evidenced mainly by their writing skills, unshakable opinions that lack or defy research, limited approach to logic and reliance on ad hominem attacks, and sheer statistical likelihood of doing all he has done)…

It is hard to process their unassailable belief that they are smarter, wiser, savvier, more moral and more visionary than this particular man is.

People who support the demonstrated, quantifiable, statistically impossible excellence, achievement and nature of this American hero, you call “Obamabots,” don’t you? You chuckle at them and sincerely consider them delusional or deluded! (That “hero” term is filling your head with noise again, isn’t it?
*************************************

Plan to send this Ezra Klein….i have grown very intolerant of their White Privilege and disrespect towards our President…

I went to there and read both articles, Smartypants and Dailykos. Very powerful. Read thru some of the comments on Dailykos just to see what they were saying. Of course still many emos saying Obama wasn’t pure enough, but found this comment very informative.

, I agree with both you & NB, but am a Bot still. How can this be?

While Free Trade, Neolibrealism, etc, are great evils, imo, they are not the worst evils, and they’re defintely not the low-hanging fruit of evils.

People dying from lack of health care. People dying in “wars of choice.” The destruction of American society by our would-be owners, the Republicans. The destruction of the American “public mind” by highly coordinated corporate propaganda and an anti-intellectual media strategy. The exhaltation of greed. The destruction of the planet and most of its species. Etc etc.

No anti-Free Trader could get remotely close to the Presidency. So it’s very much arguable that to do the most good one must get into power and use that power to do something about the list above, and the hundreds of similar evils crying out for action.

I’d suggest that Obama is cognizant of the situation as you describe it – it’s not all that secret – but that he’s made the choice to do as much good as possible, while believing that this can’t be done from an outside critic’s perspective.

I’d further suggest that he’s willing to be vilified by his natural, progressive allies to get this done.

Of course, the opposite is also arguable. I’ve argued it myself, back when I was a “get-to-the-root-of-the-problem” activist. Founding & growing a radical progressive organization, sacrificing my marriage, spending years organizing, etc, for the cause.

Only problem…it didn’t work.

We never passed health care for all. We never won a single environmental battle. We never got a single anti-Free Trade person elected. We did nothing for LGBTs. We couldn’t stop or end the Iraq War. We helped no poor people, no unions, no middle class, no seniors. We lost every battle.

We met in conferences, listened to rousing learned speakers, flew about organizing towns & chapters, told each other how brilliant we were, published newsletters & websites & blogs, looked down on those working within the system as “ameliorists”, worked for 3rd parties, etc.

Results: nada.

So now I’m a Bot, using what leverage I actually have to push through change – sometimes incremental, sometimes ground-breaking. It’s humbling. But it’s real change, lots of real change, and not just in my own mind. Real people get to suffer less as a result.

I’m greatful to Obama for making this possible, by being willing to do the immense work, take on the burdens of leadership, and suffer the slings & arrows, many from his own people, to make a real actual difference.

(BTW, I have nothing against progressive purists. That case is arguable too. Just please don’t sabotage those who take the other fork…we’re pushing for change too.)

But when it gets right down to it, GOTV, folks! OFA or whichever Democrats you choose to actively work for and support.

Hope + Change! Same as the President and Vice President have been reminding us, since 2008. We must not allow the awful people that “surround” us to bring us down. Our only hope is standing with them. Our only change is VOTING. As Tip O’Neill would say, “Vote early and vote often!”

12% turnout is really shameful. If this situation isn’t Lesson #1A of what you get when you don’t bother to vote, I don’t know what is. Not voting has consequences—-dire consequences. How to make that connection clear to all voters???